THE Zimbabwe Hospitals Doctors Association (ZHDA) has blamed the Health Apex Board for the continued problems within the health sector and will push for its restructuring, including the ouster of Panganai Chivese as chairperson of the Health Apex Board.
Addressing members today at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals on the sidelines of their demonstration on Wednesday, ZHDA secretary general Tawanda Zvakada said Chivese no longer represented the interests of the doctors amid suspicion that he was negotiating in bad faith, thus prolonging standoff between the doctors and government.
“We no longer trust the Apex Board as chaired by Chivese and other representatives from other health associations. We believe they are the major reason of the problems we are facing as they continue accepting offers that are not sustainable to health workers.”
Zvakada said Chivese was not concerned with the welfare of healthcare workers, hence his continued engagement in agreements that do not represent the views of most healthcare employees.
“They have been signing some ridiculous offers from the government that do not sustain us, and on Friday we will restructure it so that we will resume meaningful negotiations,” Zvakada said.
He also said the Apex Council did not represent the interests of the doctors, hence the decision by senior doctors to engage in direct negotiations with the President’s office.
“We wanted to leave the Health Apex and negotiate directly with the Health Services Board, but after consultations we were advised it was not possible to negotiate on our own, hence the only alternative is to restructure it.
Fortunately, our senior doctors have found a different negotiation panel which links them to the Office of the President and Cabinet directly. So, for now, we will continue to pressurise the HSB until our grievancesare addressed,” added Zvakada.
He said junior doctors were not enjoying the continuous standoff and wanted to go back to work after government addressed their grievances.
“We told HSB that we do not want to have this conflict therefore they should reveal our core allowances so that we do not continue to have these strikes in future.”
Today’s industrial action marked 30 days of the junior doctors’ strike. Senior doctors are expected to join the industrial action on Thursday, claiming incapacitation.
Another junior doctor, Trevor Chivandire, who was part of the demonstration, said they still had hope in government.
“We still have hope with our government and pray that we do not reach the 2008 period when hospitals closed for six months due to incapacity,” Chivandire said.
“We are still far away. Therefore, the government has every reason to listen to us and stop threatening to cut our salaries,” he added.
Tuesday government, through the HSB, said doctors should return to work so that negotiations could resume or alternatively risk losing a part of their salaries.
